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Category Archives: Theology
Which Gospel? Prologue, the Gospels of Kicking the Smoking Habit
Back a few days ago, I asked a question about just how wrong is smoking? I got 23 comments! I don’t get 23 comments when we talk about women elders! Why such interest in a fairly mundane subject? I mean, … Continue reading
Posted in Gospel, What Is the?, Uncategorized
Tagged All, emerging church, missional church, purpose driven church, smoking
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Surprised by Hope: The Rapture
The Second Coming is a doctrine we struggle with in the Churches of Christ. Years ago, in the 1940s and thereabouts, the Churches split over premillennialism. Almost all the Churches rejected the doctrine, with Foy Wallace making belief in the … Continue reading
Surprised by Hope: The Ascension
In N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, he explains the significance of the ascension of Jesus in understanding the End Times. He notes that while only Luke records the event (twice!), it’s implicit in much of the rest of the … Continue reading
Surprised by Hope: What the Whole World Is Waiting For
The First Century Church had no notion of inevitable human progress, nor did the early church consider the creation evil or something to be escaped. Rather, the early church taught a very different view. Wright traces three major themes — … Continue reading
Posted in Heaven, Uncategorized
Tagged All, eschatology, N. T. Wright, new earth, new heaven, Surprised by Hope
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Surprised by Hope: Two Contrary Views of How This World Works
In the last two hundred years Western thought has overemphasized the individual at the expense of the larger picture of God’s creation. What is more, in much Western piety, at least since the Middle Ages, the influence of Greek philosophy … Continue reading
Posted in Heaven, Uncategorized
Tagged All
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Surprised by Hope: “Resurrection”
Resurrection in the ancient world In the ancient world, “resurrection” always referred to a bodily resurrection. The word wasn’t used when the topic was the survival of our spiritual essence after death. The pagans uniformly denied resurrection as a possibility, … Continue reading
Surprised by Hope: Traditional Beliefs About Heaven
[I’m beginning a summer series of classes on N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope. The material in this and the following posts is a blend of his writings and my own thoughts. Hence, Wright’s book quotes many Anglican hymns and … Continue reading
Posted in Heaven, Uncategorized
Tagged All
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An Easter Conversation
The “Out of Ur” blog at Christianity Today often has some fascinating material. Yesterday, the editors posted this conversation with N. T. Wright about the meaning of Easter. Not only is this timely for the season, but it fits well … Continue reading
Searching for The Third Way: Predestination, Part 4
The Third Way of Predestination In Christianity, there are essentially two views of predestination. The Calvinists teach that God decides who will be saved and then changes them, outside their own choosing, so they’ll have faith. Calvinists deny that we … Continue reading
Posted in Searching for a Third Way, Uncategorized
Tagged All, arminianism, calvinism, God outside time, predestination
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Searching for The Third Way: Predestination, Part 3
The scriptures that teach predestination I believe in predestination, because the Bible plainly teaches it. But I do not accept the Calvinist view. Nor do I accept the traditional view of non-Calvinists, such as most Church of Christ scholars. Rather, … Continue reading
Posted in Searching for a Third Way, Uncategorized
Tagged All, arminianism, calvinism, God outside time, predestination
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